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2012 ABIA winners announced

Monday, 28 May 2012
The winners of this year’s Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) were announced on Friday 18 May at a special event in Sydney. Hosted by the ABC’s Paul Barclay, this year’s...

NSW tribunal to consider Judith Wright poetry case

Monday, 28 May 2012
An application has been made to the New South Wales Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT) by publisher Gumquest/Editions Tom Thompson (ETT) Imprint regarding the publication of poems from Judith Wright’s...

Introducing the PM’s Literary Awards fiction shortlist 

Monday, 28 May 2012
The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlists have been announced, and in the fiction category Miles Franklin contenders All That I Am and Foal’s Bread are joined by Sarah Thornhill, Autumn Laing and Forecast:...

Reviews: July 2012 

Friday, 25 May 2012
Fiction Nightfall (Will Elliott, HarperCollins, July) Aden wakes up in a blood-filled bathtub in a strange place. He knows he has killed himself, but remembers only fragments of his life....

‘All That I Am’ wins 2012 Barbara Jefferis Award

Thursday, 24 May 2012
All That I Am by Anna Funder (Penguin) has won this year’s Barbara Jefferis Award, presented by the Australian Society of Authors (ASA). Funder’s novel was selected for the $35,000...

Orange to cease sponsoring the Orange Prize 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
In the UK, mobile services company Orange will end its sponsorship of the Women’s Prize for Fiction after the presentation of this year’s award, reports the Bookseller. Orange has sponsored...

‘Berlin Syndrome’ film adaptation 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Aquarius Films has optioned the film rights to Melanie Joosten’s Berlin Syndrome (Scribe). Screenwriter Shaun Grant, writer of the screenplay for Snowtown, will adapt the book to film. Joosten said,...

Keil joins the Ampersand Project 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
The Ampersand Project, a Hardie Grant Egmont (HGE) initiative to publish books from unpublished emerging writers, has signed up Melbourne writer Melissa Keil. The project received 250 submissions after an...

CBCA conference returns on a smaller scale

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Around 380 delegates attended this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) ‘multistoried’ conference, which was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre from 17-19 May. Julie Wells, national president of...

International authors take centre stage at SWF 2012 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Book sales at this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival, held between 14 and 20 May, were dominated by international authors, according to festival bookseller Gleebooks. Gleebooks owner David Gaunt told Bookseller+Publisher...

HGE signs first author through Ampersand Project

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
The Ampersand Project, a Hardie Grant Egmont (HGE) initiative to publish books from unpublished emerging writers, has signed up Melbourne writer Melissa Keil. The project received 250 submissions after an...

Baum appointed Booktopia editorial director 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Booktopia has announced that Caroline Baum has been appointed as editorial director. Baum will be responsible for ‘headline editorial pieces’ for the company’s online newsletter Booktopia Buzz, and will contribute...

Publishers support agreement to reduce PIR timeframe 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Most major Australian publishers have said that they support the Book Industry Speed to Market Initiative, developed by the Australian Publishers Association (APA) and the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA), which...

Cunningham appointed Literature Board chair

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Author and former Meanjin editor Sophie Cunningham has been appointed to the position of chair of the Australia Council Literature Board. Cunningham, who started in the role on 16 May,...

Byrne appointed to VIP Program committee 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
The Australia Council has announced Wenona Byrne has joined the Visiting International Publishers (VIP) Program committee. Byrne, who is rights and international sales manager at Allen & Unwin, joins existing...

Quote of the week 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
‘We expect, conservatively, that just under a quarter of the Australian population will purchase an ebook in the next six months, and there’s a real possibility of much steeper growth....

International library news 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Two new libraries for South African school children A fundraising program run by the library team from Monash South Africa, a campus of Monash University, will see two new libraries...

In Brief 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Spotify launches in Australia Swedish music-streaming service Spotify launched on 22 May in Australia and New Zealand. Spotify provides free access to over 16 million tracks from computers, smartphones, tablets,...

SLV makes nonfiction ebooks available 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
SLV makes nonfiction ebooks available The State Library of Victoria is making thousands of Australian nonfiction books available through the Electronic Book Library (EBL). Victorian registered library users can borrow...

Hachette offers new ebooks to some US libraries 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Major US trade publisher Hachette Book Group (HBG), which has not made new ebooks available to libraries since April 2010, has created a pilot program to bring a selection of their...

Global support for Harvard’s open access model 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Supporters around the world have joined the ‘open access movement’, following Harvard’s call to its academics to publish all scholarly material in open access journals. As previously reported by Bookseller+Publisher,...

Libraries and the 2012/13 Victorian State Budget 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Libraries and the 2012/13 Victorian State Budget The 2012/13 State Budget released on 1 May included $12.7 million over four years for the public libraries funding program – 3.4 million...

Harry Potter ebooks available via Kobo 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Kobo has announced it is now licensed to sell Harry Potter ebooks. Like all booksellers licensed to sell the ebooks, Kobo can offer the titles on its platform but they...

Kobo owner leads US$100 million investment in Pinterest 

Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Rakuten, the Japanese owner of Kobo, has led a US$100 million (A$102 million) investment round in the image-based social network site Pinterest, reports the Financial Times. ‘They use beautiful graphics very...